Rohde & Schwarz Monitors Signal Coverage

Rohde & Schwarz is all about the signal: transmitting it, testing it and ensuring full coverage.

"In yesterday's market, you had fixed coverage and either people received you or did not receive you," said the company's Director of Sales and Marketing Eddy Vanderkerken.

"Now, you're going into a mobile environment, so you may have areas of no coverage. You have devices with smaller antennas. Coverage is not the same. I think it's going to be essential to have good coverage ...with spotty coverage, you have a bad user experience."

Rohde & Schwarz was one of the first equipment vendors to develop Mobile DTV gear. For NAB Show 2011, the company rolled out a Mobile DTV test-and-measurement device, or more precisely, rolled that function into its ETL Analyzer.

The ETL already supports analog and digital formats around the world. With a firmware upgrade and FPGA board, it now supports ATSC-M/H and can be optimized for single-frequency networks, according to Greg Kregoski, business development manager for broadcast.

On the transmitter side, Rohde & Schwarz is focused on efficiency—up to 26 percent on its solid-state transmitters, including the cooling system.